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Genetic privacy protected by law

25 February 2007

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A law that would protect people in the US from being denied jobs or insurance because of their genetic make-up looks set to be passed after 12 years of debate.

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), introduced into Congress on 16 January, is sweeping through committees in the House of Representatives and is tipped to appear before the Senate and the full House within weeks. If passed, GINA will become the first federal law to prevent employers from collecting genetic information on their employees. It would also outlaw genetic discrimination, preventing insurers from denying coverage or charging higher premiums based on a person’s predisposition to disease.

Previous attempts to introduce such a law faltered in a Republican-dominated House, but that all changed when the Democrats took charge of Congress last November. “There’s a willingness to get something passed,” says Karen Rothenberg at the University of Maryland School of Law in Baltimore.